


All The Ways You Fall

by twelvemorestopsandhome



Category: The White Queen (TV)
Genre: F/M, Largely Richard centic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 15:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1652951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvemorestopsandhome/pseuds/twelvemorestopsandhome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The many deaths of Richard of the House of York</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Ways You Fall

**Author's Note:**

> hella angsty. sorry.

Richard, fourth son of Richard of York and Cecily Neville dies at six weeks old. Taken in his sleep as so many infants are. Day after day, his brothers and sisters ask where baby Dickon has gone until they ask no more.

 

*

 

Richard, forth son of Richard of York and Cecily Neville and brother to the rightful king dies at the age of nine. A fall from a horse followed by a sleep he never awakes from. It happens under the care of the Earl of Warwick but no-one is to blame and the whole country mourns until attention is returned to the cause at hand of putting a York on the throne of England. While everyone else looks to London, a young girl in Middleham cries for her friend.

 

*

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brother to the King and military leader dies at the age of 18. His head struck from his body before it is displayed along that of his brothers and cousins on spikes outside the Tower for the world to see. The Prince of Ice sits upon the throne and his queen attempts to prove her loyalty by not looking away when he forces her to look upon their faces.

 

*

 

Richard, Duke of Gloucester dies at the age of 19 at Tewkesbury. Takes a blow to the head and then a sword to the heart and he bleeds out on the battle field like a common soldier. The so-called Dowager Princess of Wales wears black for six months and _no-one_ thinks it's for her husband.

 

*

 

Richard, Duke of Gloucester dies of a fever at the age of 21. Having returned to the North to be with his wife when she gives birth, he is bedridden himself but through the delirium, he can hear her cries fill the castle. And then, further cries. More frantic, newer, fresher, more _alive_ and he prays Anne won't hate him for leaving them now.

 

_*_

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector and king-to-be dies at the age of 31. He is smothered in his sleep the night before his coronation. In her grief, Anne Neville accuses _the witch_ as she has done many years before when her sister was taken from her. (She had not been in the chamber of course, the future queen needed to prepare with her ladies). Nothing is ever proved or discovered and she watches a River's king take her husband's throne.

 

*

 

Richard, King of England dies at 57. In his bed. Of a life well lived. It is far too soon his wife says accusingly. Dear lady he replies I have outrun death long enough, my only regret is in leaving you.

Lies, of course, he has dozen of regrets. The foremost being that this death is also a lie.

 

*

 

_King Richard III dies on a battlefield in Bosworth at the age of 32. With a crown on his head and sword in his hand and a betrayal in his heart, wishing he had the serenity to greet death like an old friend._


End file.
